Open Thread: If You Won The $656 Mega-Millions, Would You Return to Work?

Two of the anonymous winners from Maryland are reportedly returning to their normal day jobs in order to keep their jackpots a secret. (Seems to us that as soon as the 100″ flat screens arrive, the neighbors might get a tad suspicious, but…)

If you were in their soon-to-be-very-comfy-shoes, would you go back to your job?

yes, in a heart beat. would i stop working? no. but damn sure not as much. $=choice. we all want choice. now i don’t know how many people were involved in the winnings but lets just say i all of the sudden was 100m for the better. i’m 52 even if, thats a huge if i make to 75, thats OVER 4.3m a year. i just can’t see even being able to do that, even after the initial frenzy! which would be a really big boat. i certainly can be a fool but being foolish is a different thing, choices.… Read more »

0

| ReplyShareHide Replies ∧

Guest

KKZ

4 years 7 months ago

I don’t think I’d quit my current job because I do like what I do, and I get satisfaction from being paid for the quality of service I provide. But I can see how if I was in a job I really didn’t like or wasn’t rewarding, I’d probably quit and live off the lottery “earnings” for a little while … but I can’t really stand to be idle for too long, and at 24, I still (hopefully) have a lot of time left ahead of me and I don’t want to spend that time sleeping on a beach just… Read more »

0

| ReplyShareHide Replies ∧

Guest

Copyleft

4 years 7 months ago

Of course I’d quit my job… some time later, for seemingly unrelated reasons. The key is not to let anybody find out that you have money, because your life will go straight down the tubes. Spend a little (not in a flashy way) and invest the bulk of your winnings. Quietly pay off your car, your mortgage, etc., and just live a somewhat more relaxed lifestyle, with nobody the wiser. Invent a work-from-home or part-time position if necessary to keep the illusion of employment, and above all DON’T splurge. “Openly declare your good fortune and you’ll soon be surprised at… Read more »

I would buy my dad a new car… He has a long commute to a very hard job, or better yet, find a way for him to retire!… Pay off my house, research charities and set up a donation schedule, meet with a financial advisor, and then start plans to expand my teeny house!

And finish my damn novel!

0

| ReplyShareHide Replies ∧

Guest

Anthony Zarat

4 years 7 months ago

Yeah, right … Every response outlines vague and limited plans. My “disbelief-o-meter” is pegged, and I smell a fish … I think most people have a very immediate use for a multi-million dollar bolus. A financial windfall is a tool to turn a long-mulled-over idea/dream into a world-changing (or challenging) reality. The big difference between people like Gates/Jobs and your everday Joe is not the quality of the idea, it is the effectiveness of the sales pitch. I think virtually everyone has a promising game-chainging idea or project … but most people are embarrased to admit it. Why? Someone spill… Read more »

0

| ReplyShareHide Replies ∧

Guest

GirlGlad4TheGMP

4 years 7 months ago

I think I’d take a few weeks off, process what happened, decide how this is going to play out in my life (what kind of charity would i preform, how involved would I be) and maybe who I would tell, maybe spend a little moolah going to see my faraway relatives, buy out all of the mortgages for my family, pay off the Master’s degree loans for my friends, and set up university funds for my neices and nephews…then I’d just go back to work. I have many years left to work, and I like what I do…besides, I don’t… Read more »

Well chances are I’d buy my parents a house, and my sister and her husband a house. I’d do a bunch of travelling, because I love it. Then I’d go to uni. Seriously, if money was no object, I’d just spend my entire life at university. (No, not because I don’t want to get a job). I just love it.

So yeah I guess I sort of would go back to ‘work,’ seeing as that’s what I do now…study. lol.

0

| ReplyShareHide Replies ∧

Guest

John Schtoll

4 years 7 months ago

I would quit

0

| ReplyShareHide Replies ∧

Guest

Danny

4 years 7 months ago

Yes. I think a big part of the reason why lottery winners end up broke after a few years is because they go off the deep end with big spending and forgetting where they came from so to speak. The money goes to their heads. And I guess I can see why. Winning a big jackpot like that usually means getting a sum of money that is larger than the combined total of all of the wages that person would earn across all the jobs in their entire life. They come to think that since they have so much money… Read more »

0

| ReplyShareHide Replies ∧

Guest

KKZ

4 years 7 months ago

Cracked.com had a pretty interesting article that referred to how our brains process large numbers and how we understand money. I can’t find it anymore but to sum up, People who go from rags to riches (or even middle-class to riches) often end up wasting those riches away because (a) our brains actually have a hard time understanding very very large numbers and nailing down what they mean in concrete terms and (b), especially if they are poor, they are used to living paycheck to paycheck, getting money and then having to spend it more or less immediately on food… Read more »

I would form a foundation first thing. Focus on humanism, egalitarianism and civil rights issues. Issues around gender. Then I’d form my own business doing the work I wanted to do. Purchasing property would be a big thing so that I could live decently in the cities I enjoy. Travel with my children.

Doubtful I’d buy a lot of toys, but who knows.

I’d still work, but I’d put that money to excellent use doing much of what I’m already doing now, just x 1000.